Taming a Sea-Horse, Audio Edition

Taming a Sea-Horse, Audio Edition (1986/1987) Robert B Parker narrated by Michael Prichard

April Kyle has once again disappeared, so Patricia Utley has called Spenser to let him know, since no one else cares about her.

Spenser and Susan are much better, although events of the still book remain in the front of their minds.

“I haven’t killed anyone yet this trip.”

Susan was silent for a moment on the phone, then she said, “Ah, that’s what it is. It’s not this, it’s still San Francisco.

“And Idaho.”

She said. “Whatever you did, and whoever you killed, and however you feel about it, you have to judge all of that in context. You were doing what you felt you had to do, and you were doing it for love.”

“The people I killed are just as dead.”

“Yes. It makes no difference to them why you did it. But it makes a difference to me and to you. What we’ve been through in the last couple of years has produced the relationship we have now, achieved love, maybe. Something we’ve earned, something we’ve paid for in effort and pain and maybe mistakes as well. I live with some.”

This is where Susan starts to grate on my nerves. It feel here at times as if to get past the last book, Spenser can no longer mention her flaws. Everything she does is wonderful. She starts to become more two-dimensional than she was in earlier books.

Zero mentions of Korea in this book (or military service at all), although he does mention it had been ten years since he’d seen Patricia Utley.

On the bright side, this book does have two of my favorite Spenser passages.

“Never knew somebody knew more stuff that didn’t matter,” he said. He backed the Jaguar out.

“What else is there to know,” I said. But Hawk was already rolling and didn’t hear me.

The five o’clock news ended. The six o’clock news began. The guys who read the news at six had deeper voices. Authoritative. If that trend continued, the guys who read the eleven o’clock news would sound like Paul Robeson.

I find the quality of the audio fascinating. It’s not that’s it’s terrible, it’s just that the care that is taken today wasn’t back then. At times it is extremely obvious when the narrator stopped to take a break as there are significant changes in his voice from one sentence to the next. It isn’t bad, it’s just something you don’t hear in the currently produced audio books.

This isn’t my favorite story, but I did enjoy it, and I remain fascinated by Spenser’s moral attitudes, especially towards prostitution.
Rating: 6.5/10

Published by Random House Audio

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